It was, however, necessary to select a spot
near the mouths of the Nile, which would secure these advantages in the
highest degree, and which would at the same time be of the highest
importance in a military point of view, and afford a harbour constantly
accessible. The site of Alexandria combined all these advantages: on three
sides it has the sea, or the lake Mareotis, which, according to Strabo, was
nearly 300 stadia long, and 150 broad; the country adjoining this lake was
fertile, and by means of it, and natural or artificial channels, there was
a communication with the Delta and Upper Egypt. Between this lake and the
Canopic branch of the Nile, Alexander built his city: to less sagacious
minds this site would have appeared improper and injudicious in some
respects; for the sea-coast from Pelusium to Canopus is low land, not
visible at a distance; the navigation along this coast, and the approach to
it, is dangerous, and the entrance into the mouths of the Nile, at some
seasons, is extremely hazardous. But these disadvantages the genius of
Alexander turned to the benefit of his city, by the erection of the Pharos,
and the plan of a double harbour, which was afterwards completed by the
Ptolemies; for he thus united in a single spot the means of defence and
facility of access.
Denocrates, a Macedonian architect, who proposed to Alexander to cut Mount
Athos in the form of a statue holding a city in one hand, and in the other
a bason, into which all the waters of the mountain should empty themselves,
was employed by that monarch to build and beautify Alexandria.
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